In the Family

Though "In the Family" might average out into what might be called a middling experience, there is nothing average about it. It is probably unlike any movie you've ever seen, and in ways both bad and good. It is, by turns, inept and brilliant, shockingly amateurish and inspired. To see it is to sit there for long stretches amazed at how clumsy, fake and misguided it is. But then, five minutes later you might easily be riveted and moved by its awkward brilliance.

What's more, everything bad and good about it seems rooted in the same source. It's as if writer-director Patrick Wang had never seen a movie before. He does things no one ever does because no one should do them, and then stumbles on to a few things that no one ever does, but they should. His movie is 169 minutes long, which is insane. Yet the two great scenes in the movie - and they are genuinely great - are the result of a similarly crazy willingness to take his time.

Wang stars as a father in a gay marriage who loses his partner to a car accident. He and his 8-year-old son (Sebastian Banes) are just beginning to recover from the shock when he finds out that his late partner, the child's biological father, left the boy in the custody of his married sister. He also left her the house. The will was dated 2002, and he never got around to updating it, and so Joey (Wang) faces separation from his son and his home.

To give you some of the atmosphere of "In the Family," here is one kind of scene to expect: People visit Joey to commiserate, and they all just sit around drinking beer, talking about stuff you've already seen and already know, and nothing happens. Then they talk about other things that have nothing to do with anything. This might be followed or preceded by a scene of Joey eating breakfast by himself. Or a whole long scene of him putting together a homemade book.

There are miscues and missed signals throughout. Half the time, Wang plays Joey as such a simpleton that you wonder whether he has any business raising a child at all. In another scene, as everyone wonders where Joey might turn for help, a woman calmly walks over to a phone, dials a number and makes an appointment for him to see her lawyer. Ahh! Some plot movement. But no, that lawyer turns out to be a jerk, and so that whole story loop is for nothing.

Then, fairly late in the film, Joey meets another lawyer, played by Brian Murray, a remarkable actor, and with that, the movie levitates. Later, there's a deposition scene, with Joey and his in-laws, which seems to go on forever, but now, suddenly, the movie's languor becomes an advantage. It's fascinating. You cannot take your eyes off the screen. And whatever odd character choice Wang has made - keeping Joey simple, almost like a holy fool - begins to make perfect sense. He becomes, not weak or lightweight, but wise without knowing it, and noble.

In the process, the movie is a portrait of what it's like to be gay in a socially conservative enclave - it takes place in a small town in Tennessee. But if "In the Family" has a political agenda, it's not overt. It's just this weird slice of life, with some of it worth ignoring, but some of it to savor.